//------------------------------//
// Azsuna: The Azurewing 
// Story: World of Warcraft: The Ties that Bind 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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"Lyra... I am sorry that you had to go through with that." Kor'vas commented, though she had only spoke up when they had returned to their camp, where Stellagosa remained in her dragon form as she stood next to Archmage Khadgar, while Azuregos had reverted to his elven form and stood beside Trixie, "but we have dealt the Legion a small blow in removing Cyana from their hold... and you did free her, to the best of your ability."

Lyra nodded as she glanced down at the Twinblades for a moment, as she had taken them off her back the moment they had landed and had placed them on the ground. She could only imagine what was going on inside the two warglaives, as she was sure that the weapons consumed the energy of those she slew and converted the energy into power, which she would unlock at the forge. She was sure that the Legion had pumped fel energy into Cyana's body, which she had willingly given to Lyra and her weapons the moment she died, but it still hurt her to think about how she had to end the life of one of her closest friends... and remember her determination to stop it from happening again in the future.

"Even if we dealt the Legion a small blow we still have a problem," Kayn said, gesturing in the direction of the Tomb, where Gul'dan had opened the largest Legion portal any of them had ever seen before, "With that portal open the Legion is summoning in more powerful demons, ones that will make all the others seem like kittens in comparison."

"The Legion cannot be allowed to regain their momentum," Stellagosa added, already knowing what would happen to the rest of the Broken Isles if the demons invaded the other regions, which was thanks to what she saw in Faronaar, "otherwise the entirety of Azeroth, not just the Broken Isles, will be lost. Lyra Heartstrings, you and your friends must come to the Azurewing Repose and meet with my grandfather, Senegos, while your army stays behind to keep the demons from advancing into Azsuna. If there is anyone who might know where the Tidestone is located it would be my grandfather."

"That is a great idea," Khadgar said, to which he nodded his head in agreement, though that was before he turned to Trixie and Azuregos, "I will meet you at the Azurewing Repose and then we can see what needs to be done about finding and securing the Tidestone... before the naga or the demons get their hands on it."

Trixie nodded and watched as her mentor used his staff's power to morph into a raven, before both he and Stellagosa took off for the Repose, to which she turned back to Lyra. She had known that her fellow Equestrian would have made some special bonds with the demon hunters she had been training with, as she had made several friendships and had seen one of them shatter when Illidan killed one of her friends... who had been later resurrected by the Lich King. She knew the pain that Lyra was feeling and truly wanted her to get over it before they moved on, but there was more they had to do and she gently helped Lyra stand once more.

Lyra gently picked up the Twinblades and returned them to her back, to which she called over her felsaber, quickly mounted the cat, and then took off down the old road that Khadgar and Stellagosa were following... to which Trixie called her normal mount back to her and followed after her friend, whole Azuregos rode on the back of her mount as well.

It didn't take them long to find the location that Stellagosa had brought them to, though as they entered the Repose they noticed that there was a fair number of blue dragons, in every size that Trixie had seen during the last seven years, either standing around or getting some work done. Azuregos was amazed by what he was seeing, because it had been some time since he last saw such a large number of his own dragonflight, though that was before they all focused on the larger dragon that was resting in a rather large pool... which may or may not be made of pure arcane magic. As Lyra, Trixie, and Azuregos approached the pool, where they found Khadgar sending arcane energy into the large dragon, they spotted a high elf with blue hair weeping next to him... which they determined had to be Stellagosa in mortal form.

One thing that struck Lyra was how weak the ancient dragon looked, which meant that the only person who could point them to the Tidestone was dying before their eyes.

"This does not look good... he is not well." Khadgar commented, though that was more for the others as they walked up to where he and Stellagosa were standing, while at the same time trying not to worry the other dragons too much, "What is happening here?"

"Let the youthful ones approach," the large dragon, who could only be Senegos, said, though he made no effort to look directly at the group, indicating that he was in pain, "I am not as dead as I look."

"Khadgar, what exactly is going on here?" Trixie asked, though at the same time she, Lyra, and Azuregos climbed off the mounts they had been riding on, before they stopped behind her mentor.

"He is... he's dying!" Khadgar replied, unknowingly echoing the thoughts that had been racing through Lyra's mind the moment she laid eyes on the dragon, "Senegos is possibly the oldest dragon alive. We cannot simply let him slip away. And I can tell tell you that there is something not quite right with the magic energy here... I can feel that much."

"What can we do to save him?" Lyra asked, because right now she didn't want someone else to lose someone dear to them, because she knew how devastated Stellagosa would be if her grandfather died.

"I will do what I can to stabilize him, but the small amount of energy he has left is coming from the mana pool he rests in." Khadgar commented, to which he looked around the Repose for a few seconds, where he noticed some of the smaller blue dragons, whelplings he realized, bringing crystals out of a cave and dropping them into the pool, "Follow the whelplings' lead. Dropping ley crystals into the pool gives him a bit of energy, thus buying him a few more breaths. They seem to be getting the crystals from inside that cave."

Lyra, not knowing much about this world's magic and the rules that came with the arcane energy, decided that it was best not to argue with the Archmage that had taught her friend almost everything she knew, to which she walked over to the cave with Trixie and Azuregos in tow. The three of them passed by some of the other blue dragons, those that seemed to be watching over the cave and allowed them to enter the magic filled cave, where Lyra noticed some worm like creatures that appeared to be made out of some sort of crystal. Trixie stopped them for a moment, to which Lyra and Azuregos watched as some of the arcane energy in the air moved around and was absorbed into her staff, much to the surprise of all of them.

"Okay, that was weird." Trixie commented, though at the same time she smiled, because it appeared that absorbing the excess energy had empowered her staff to some degree.

Lyra nodded as she held one of the Twinblades out and threw it at the closest crystal worm, pissing it off in the process, though she allowed both Trixie and Azuregos to blast it apart with their magic. As Trixie searched the worm for any sort of crystals they could use, however, Lyra noticed that the whelplings were either picking pieces of crystal from the larger ones or from the worms themselves. The worms seemed to be ignoring them until Lyra tossed her weapon at them, so instead of wasting her time in making them all angry she had Trixie and Azuregos focus their power on the nearest crystal... where she used the Twinblades to carefully carve out fist sized crystals that they could carry.

Lyra would have questioned how she and the two mages could make the crystal malleable like this, but she decided that now wasn't the time to do that and helped her friends carry the crystals they had gathered to the mana pool... where they tossed the crystals into the water, much to the relief of Senegos, as a few seconds later the dragon let out a sigh.

"Thank you," Stellagosa said, only speaking when Lyra and her friends returned to where she and Khadgar were standing, to which she sighed as she looked at her grandfather, "your efforts have dulled his pain... for now."

"Senegos, we seek one of the Pillars of Creation," Khadgar called out, knowing that the dragon would be able to help them, though they might require aiding the dragons that called Azurewing Repose their home before they got the information that they were after, "the Tidestone of Golganneth to be exact. We know that it is here, somewhere in Azsuna, but we have no idea where it might be."

"I know that it was shattered a long time ago," the elderly dragon replied, though there was still some pain in his voice, indicating that the crystals were only a temporary fix and didn't last very long, "I do not know how it was shattered, but I do know where the pieces lie."

"The Tidestone can wait for a new more minutes," Azuregos said, causing the group to turn towards him, where he beckoned to the mana pool and the fact that nothing had changed since they had arrived in the Repose, "Something is clearly affecting Senegos' mana pool and preventing him from getting the energy he needs... and I have the feeling the new arrivals might have a lead for us to follow."

Trixie and Lyra looked in the direction that Azuregos was looking in and discovered that one of the blue dragons, one of the ones that walked on four legs and had an upper body area, similar to a centaur, standing before four whelplings that were as exhausted as Senegos... to which the three of them approached the dragon so they could see what was going on elsewhere.

"Hail mages and demon hunter," the centaur-like dragon said, surprising Lyra by the fact that he knew what she was from just a glance, before the three of them focused on him, "I am Agapanthus... and we could use your help. The Nightfallen have assaulted the whelplands... and these four whelplings need to be treated with ley crystals immediately."

Lyra and Trixie knew that the reason that Azuregos was so willing to help these blue dragons was because they were technically, by some degree anyway, part of the extended family line that the various Dragonflights had, though Trixie was more than willing to help him out, especially after all the help he had given her. They moved into the cave behind the dragon and found some more of the ley crystals that they had used to partly heal Senegos, to which they walked inside and focused on finding the crystals that the creatures that called the cave home were ignoring. It took a few minutes to find the crystals in question, and avoid the wrath of the small wyrm creatures that were floating about the cave, but they eventually found the necessary crystals and exited the cave.

Once they had the crystals they approached the wounded whelplings and started to use the ley crystals to restore them to full health... though when they reached the fourth one it collapsed as they attempted to heal it, to which Senegos seemed to notice and weakly asked them to bring the wounded whelpling over to him.

"Of course the Nightfallen would attack now." Senegos commented, his eye moving down so he could look down at the mana drained whelpling that Azuregos was carefully carrying over to him, "Those withered devils couldn't have chosen a more effective time to strike... already my brood suffers. Stellagosa, do me one last favor. Your younger brothers and sisters need your help."

"Of course," Stellagosa said, immediately knowing that her grandfather wanted her to go stop the Nightfallen, though as she turned to walk away she turned back to her grandfather for a moment, "Farewell, grandfather."

The trio watched as Stellagosa leapt into the air and reverted to her dragon form, to which she flew through the air and left the Repose behind, heading to the area that the rest of the whelplings rested. Before they followed after her, because all three of them knew that she couldn't handle everything herself if the events of Faronaar were anything to consider, they turned to Senegos and wondered what he had to tell them.

"See you soon, starlight." Senegos said, telling the trio that he was speaking to Stellagosa as if she was still there, but they kept quiet as he turned towards them, "Heroes, I must ask for your aid. Since the fall of Deathwing, we dragons have lost nearly all our power. To make matters worse, we can no longer bear eggs. My whelplings are the last of the last. Please, help defend my whelplands and I swear to you that the blues will be at your side when you need them."

"Senegos, as a fellow blue dragon I will do everything in my power to keep your brood alive," Azuregos stated, to which he turned to Trixie and Lyra, where they noticed a look of determination in his eyes, "Come on, let's go find Stellagosa and see what we can do to save the Azurewing from these Nightfallen."

Trixie had known that the situation regarding the Dragonflights was bad, especially after the Aspects had sacrificed their great power to stop Deathwing from destroying the world all those years ago, but she had no idea that the situation was actually this bad. She had no idea that the dragons could no longer bear eggs, meaning that they would be an extinct species at some point in the future, even if they stopped the Legion from destroying Azeroth. It was terrible to think about, the complete extinction of an entire sentient species, which she knew was partly because of the fact that she was a pony and all of her kind, save for a few bad apples, wanted to prevent something like that from happening... which was why she was devastated to hear that the Dragonflights would be gone in the future.

She resolved to help the dragons that were in danger at the moment, because even if there was no way to fix the more important problem that the Dragonflights were facing, extinction, she and the others could use their help in stopping the Legion... which meant that they were going to ensure that the people attacking them were stopped and the mana pools were restored to their former glory.